Dissident to be tried for disrespect

HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (Juan Carlos González / www.cubanet.org) - Dissident Ernesto Mederos was arrested by State Security agents at the Colón bus depot August 4 and sent to the Agüica prison three days later.

According to human rights activist Francisco Rangel, authorities told Mederos’s sister that he will be tried for disrespect.

Rangel also said that Mederos had started a hunger strike.

Anti-government posters appear in prison

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HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (Tania Maceda / www.cubanet.org) – Anti-government sayings were painted on the walls of the Las Tunas provincial prison last week, according to prisoner of conscience Laudel Camacho.

The sayings – “Long Live Human Rights,””Down with Fidel and Raúl” and “Long Live Democracy” – were discovered August 5, the anniversary of a disturbance on Havana’s Malecón in 1994.

“The guards immediately erased the sayings,” Camacho said in a telephone interview. “State Security is constantly questioning us about who is behind us.”

New political party founded in Camagüey

HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra, Hablemos Press / www.cubanet.org) – A new opposition party was formed last weekend in Camagüey, the Cuban Independent and Democratic Party, said the organization’s spokesman, Josiel Hernández.

Hernández said the founders met in the old Agramonte barracks where Commander Huber Matos was arrested October 17, 1959, on orders of Fidel Castro.

“The main work will be acts of civil disobedience in the streets of this city to let the people know the labor of peaceful opposition” said Maury.

Hunger strikers said to be weak

HABANA, Cuba, August 13 (Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas , www.cubanet.org) –Inmates in the Las Tunas provincial prison have sent out word that hunger strikers José Daniel Ferrer and Alfredo Domínguez Batista are in a weakened condition.

The two political prisoners started the strike last week. Both belong to the Christian Liberation Movement.

Ferrer is in solitary confinement in the prison while Domínguez Batista was being held in a special cell away from the prison.

Dissident warned about Castro’s birthday

HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (José Alberto Álvarez Bravo, www.cubanet.org) – Militants from the Communist Party went to the home of dissident José Ávalos and warned him against any provocative acts marking the 83rd birthday today of Fidel Castro.

They told Ávalos that he would be declared an “illegal occupant” and forced to leave the house he has lived in for the past 52 years.

HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (Juan Carlos González / www.cubanet.org) - Dissident Ernesto Mederos was arrested by State Security agents at the Colón bus depot August 4 and sent to the Agüica prison three days later.

According to human rights activist Francisco Rangel, authorities told Mederos’s sister that he will be tried for disrespect.

Rangel also said that Mederos had started a hunger strike.

Anti-government posters appear in prison

HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (Tania Maceda / www.cubanet.org) – Anti-government sayings were painted on the walls of the Las Tunas provincial prison last week, according to prisoner of conscience Laudel Camacho.

The sayings – “Long Live Human Rights,””Down with Fidel and Raúl” and “Long Live Democracy” – were discovered August 5, the anniversary of a disturbance on Havana’s Malecón in 1994.

“The guards immediately erased the sayings,” Camacho said in a telephone interview. “State Security is constantly questioning us about who is behind us.”

New political party founded in Camagüey

HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (Roberto de Jesús Guerra, Hablemos Press / www.cubanet.org) – A new opposition party was formed last weekend in Camagüey, the Cuban Independent and Democratic Party, said the organization’s spokesman, Josiel Hernández.

Hernández said the founders met in the old Agramonte barracks where Commander Huber Matos was arrested October 17, 1959, on orders of Fidel Castro.

“The main work will be acts of civil disobedience in the streets of this city to let the people know the labor of peaceful opposition” said Maury.

Hunger strikers said to be weak

HABANA, Cuba, August 13 (Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas , www.cubanet.org) –Inmates in the Las Tunas provincial prison have sent out word that hunger strikers José Daniel Ferrer and Alfredo Domínguez Batista are in a weakened condition.

The two political prisoners started the strike last week. Both belong to the Christian Liberation Movement.

Ferrer is in solitary confinement in the prison while Domínguez Batista was being held in a special cell away from the prison.

Dissident warned about Castro’s birthday

HAVANA, Cuba, August 13 (José Alberto Álvarez Bravo, www.cubanet.org) – Militants from the Communist Party went to the home of dissident José Ávalos and warned him against any provocative acts marking the 83rd birthday today of Fidel Castro.

They told Ávalos that he would be declared an “illegal occupant” and forced to leave the house he has lived in for the past 52 years.